


Shut Up & Dance

by orphan_account



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: Chinese Food, Dancing, F/F, First Kiss, Fluff, not even sorry, pure fluff, shut up and dance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-19
Updated: 2016-09-19
Packaged: 2018-08-16 02:51:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8083849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Based on the prompt by not-so-secret-nerd on tumblr. Erin has a bad day and Holtzmann wants to help. Shenanigans ensue. Pure fluff. Sorry, not sorry.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: http://not-so-secret-nerd.tumblr.com/post/150378030937/can-we-take-a-moment-and-just-think-about
> 
> I really hope that you guys enjoy this. I seem to be a one-shot machine here recently and I have something a bit bigger in the brain right now... a collaboration of sorts that I hope to start working on soon! Thanks again to anyone reading this for giving my stories a shot!
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING

Erin was mad. No – Erin was _outraged_ … Enraged? Bitter…? _Smad_ is what Holtzmann lovingly referred to it as – a five-foot-five walking beanstalk of pure fury.

 

The bust had been just like any other run of the mill for the Ghostbusting squad since they became the official slayers of the paranormal around New York since the Rowan incident months ago. But just like any other time, Erin wound up coated in the green cytoplasmic amoeboid cells that their ghost targets seemed to enjoy leaving.

 

Patty helped her strip off the ruined jumpsuit she wore but it helped nothing because the ectoplasm that the class four had purged on her made its way down her collar and was soaked through her baby blue top and she could feel it squelching in her boots with every step. Abby laid down some spare towels that the hotel manager offered (or she stole them, Erin really didn’t care at this point) to line the backseat of the ECTO-1 so Erin could ride a little more comfortably, back to HQ.

 

Upon parking at the Firehouse, Erin was the first to jump from the hearse and storm up the stairwell – past a confused Kevin who held his hand up for a high-five that Holtzmann eventually gave him with a grin to stop the beefy receptionist from pouting – to the third floor where they had a communal bathroom, refusing to bother with the chemical showers in Holtzmann’s lab on the second.

 

“Man, she’s gonna clog up the drain with that stuff,” Patty muttered, but did nothing to stop the physicist whom they all knew was clearly displeased by becoming the target of an ecto-bath once again. Holtzmann snickered and hung Erin’s proton pack in her locker before tossing her own up and then heading toward the second floor where she was determined to finish her latest project, come Hades or whatever.

 

“Hey Abby, maybe order some extra spring rolls for Erin, yeah?” Holtzmann thought and called down from the hole in the floor where the fire pole ran from her lab to the first story where Abby was already perusing Zhu’s menu, cell phone in hand.

 

“You got it,” Abby acknowledged and Holtzmann sent her her customary two-fingered salute before disappearing from the hole, missing the look shared between the two Ghostbusters. 

* * *

 

Erin managed to get cleaned up in just under an hour, but her mood still had not improved as she towel-dried her dark auburn hair, running her fingers through just to ensure that she didn’t miss any ectoplasm. The stuff became damn near impossible to deal with once it dried.

 

The third floor was silent, but she could smell fresh delivery of Chinese and sure enough, sitting in the communal kitchen of their third floor living quarters on the dining room table, was a container of still warm General Tso’s chicken and a bag with three spring rolls – Erin’s favorite – and an iced tea.

 

Erin walked over to see a note written hastily in Holtzmann’s scrawl held down by the take-out container.

 

_We already ate, figured you’d need space… come down to the lab when you’re ready! – H._

 

Erin couldn’t help the pang in her chest when she fought hard to smile at the sweet gesture but couldn’t seem to get past her anger that still pumped in her veins like a wildfire, unable to be contained because of a simple act of kindness – or water hose.

 

The redhead ate her meal in silence, listening gently for the sounds of the other Ghostbusters downstairs, but most of it was drowned out by Holtzmann’s music directly below her, as well as the sounds of her banging and clanging around the lab, probably fixing a proton pack or readjusting something on a new toy.

 

 _It’s not her fault – or anybody’s really… How is it though that_ I’m _the only one who ever gets hit by this stuff? It’s not even the fact that it’s permanent, but still – why me?_ Erin had theorized this hundreds of times in the past since they began busting on a regular basis after the Rowan incident.

 

Abby had theorized that something in Erin’s DNA might have something to do with why ghosts seem to attract to her like her neighbors did.

 

She even spent time researching molecules and had taken a sample of Erin’s blood to figure out why ghosts seemed to only appear and be malevolent towards Erin. It included several reasons, dating back to their visit from Lady Gertrude at the Aldridge Mansion.

 

“ _Think about it, Erin! Holtzmann and I had gone around in circles for months before you showed up and suddenly a ghost appears?_ ” Abby had reasoned.

 

Technically the tour guide – _Garrick? Or was it Gary?_ – had been spooked by the sight of the ectoplasm and the green glowing and flying chairs, but he had never physically _seen_ Gertrude… no, she had not physically taken form until Erin herself was present.

 

“ _Chances are, had you not been there, Holtz and I would have just been haunted or spooked as well with no visible or tangible proof!_ ”

 

Erin shook her head as she finished her second spring roll (They’re addicting! Don’t judge…) and tried to theorize with Abby’s research in her own mind as to why she of all the billions of people on the planet, seemed to attract the one thing that made her the biggest freak of them all.

 

Abby loved ghosts, she’d seemingly trade Erin’s experiences in a heartbeat to try and understand ghosts better, but Erin never asked to be haunted by her old neighbor… she never asked for the therapy or the taunts at school…

 

Holtzmann… well – Holtzmann was _Holtzmann_ , weird, quirky, a little bit insane and definitely scary in her own right at times. But Holtzmann managed to still do well for herself, even before the Ghostbusters, and Erin had given up trying to understand the cute sci – _whoa_ … Erin blinked and choked on a mouthful of rice. She swallowed a gulp of tea down and cleared her throat.

 

 _Where in the name of Tesla did_ that _thought come from?!_ Erin mused. But then rethought it over… Okay, so yes, Holtzmann was cute, in a mad-scientist who liked to lick things (for science) kind of way.

 

Erin put the thought out of her head. This was dangerous territory, she’d already spent months pining over Kev whom the team later learned was in a long-distance and long term relationship with a man named Tom who lived in Australia. They got to meet him via a Skype call once, very handsome and a little bit smarter than his blonde counterpart, but just as sweet.

 

Needless to say, Erin let go of that pipe dream and Abby was relieved. But it was no secret where Holtzmann stood on the Kinsey scale, she was as she loved to put it “ _queer as a three-dollar bill in a go-go dancers thong._ ”

 

Erin, however never really knew where she herself stood on the spectrum. Yes, she was definitely attracted to men, but as far as women went, there’d never been anyone who really stood out to Erin, not that she’d been looking anyway, having had enough on her plate to make sure she could be ridiculed by her colleagues the rest of her life.

 

But no, nobody had really ever caught her eye – _until now_. Her brain whispered and she shook her head and stood, cleaning up her mess before heading downstairs to the lab which she and Holtzmann shared _– sort of._

 

Erin seemed to constantly wander up to Holtzmann’s floor more often than not and the two of them did more work together than Erin did with Abby or Patty combined, constantly working through tough equations or formulas for the weapons that Holtzmann would build and tweak and modify. Erin would collaborate on her ideas and be the voice of reason in explaining to Holtzmann why a “ghost flamethrower” was a little bit overkill.

 

Eventually Holtzmann just cleared aside a smaller workbench that became known as Erin’s desk and helped haul her favorite large whiteboard up and screw it into the wall. Patty and Abby made small comments here and there about Erin just needing to admit that she wanted to be closer to Holtz, or that they were just going to wind up banging against a reactor up there someday and joked to themselves, placing bets on how long it would take one of them to crack. Erin was none the wiser.

 

Holtzmann was indeed, tinkering in her lab as Erin came down and the engineer looked up momentarily from behind her goggles to give Erin a brief, but kind smile and Erin tried to return it but the depression and seething still running through her made it look more like a grimace as she walked over to her desk without a word, playing with an errant string from her favorite M.I.T. hoodie and sat down to take a look at some work, perhaps science was what she needed.

 

Science, unlike people didn’t confuse Erin, didn’t make her worry about negative outcomes if she accidentally got something wrong – which, she rarely did with Physics – but if she did, she could simply erase it and correct herself. Humans however, were more complicated – _Holtz_ was more complicated.

 

She began trying to study a formula for energizing their proton packs in half of the time when she found her foot tapping along to a familiar beat that had begun to play from Holtzmann’s radio.

 

_Ohh, don’t you dare look back_

_Just keep your eyes on me_

_I said, “You’re holding back,”_

_She said, “Shut up and dance with me!”_

_This woman is my destiny…_

 

“She said _ooh-ooh-hoo!_ Shut up and _dance_ with me!” Holtzmann yelled-sang out and tossed her blowtorch down on the table, a little recklessly before hopping over her workbench with a beaming smile as she approached Erin with a grooving saunter as the song continued and she lip sync’d to the popular WALK THE MOON song.

 

“What?” Erin blinked up at the blonde who offered her hand out to Erin while singing in time with the mans synthesized voice. Holtzmann maintained eye contact as she sang the first verse to the stunned physicist:

 

“ _We were victims of the night… the chemical, physical, kryp_ to-niiiiite!”

 

Erin shook her head stoic, watching as Holtzmann pouted, but continued to sing and dance around her desk, grabbing one of Erin’s weird science-y paperweights that was a cartoon beaker and began singing into it.

 

“Helpless to the _bass_ and the fading lights, oh we were BOUND to get together, _bound to get together!_ ” Holtzmann reached for Erin’s hand and pulled her out from her desk.

 

Erin felt her heartrate increase and her foot still beat in time to the rhythm of the catchy song that she’d heard over and over on the radio lately, but she still wouldn’t budge from her chair. Simply watching as Holtzmann twirled, lab coat fanning around her legs and she pointed to Erin, singing at her with a playful glare and a lopsided smirk.

 

 _Why does she affect me so?_ Erin glowered right back, feeling her disappointed façade from earlier begin to crack around the edges. She kept her mouth in a firm, thin line to fight the smile that wanted to appear on her face as Holtzmann sang and danced around her.

 

“ _She took my arm – I don’t know how it happened! We took the floor and she saaaaaaid…_ ” Holtzmann headbanged the last word and Erin finally felt her face crack.

 

Her heart melted and her lips twitched once, twice before a small break in her smile shone through her demeanor; small at first, but Holtzmann’s cerulean blue eyes twinkled in mischief as she watched Erin’s mouth move (barely) to the next verse.

 

_Oh, don’t you dare look back_

_Just keep your eyes on me_

_I said, “You’re holding back”_

_She said, “Shut up and dance with me!”_

“This woman is my destiny, she said ooh-ooh-hoo!” Holtzmann threw a fake lasso over Erin and mimed pulling herself closer as a genuine smile finally broke free and Erin laughed as she finished the verse –

 

“Shut _up_ and dance with me!” Holtzmann clapped like a giddy teenager and this time when she offered Erin a slight bow and her hand. Erin laughed, taking it and curtseying with enthusiasm and allowed the blonde scientist to pull her into a frantic dance.

 

_A backless dress and some beat up sneaks_

_My discothèque, Juliet teenage dream_

_I felt it in my chest as she looked at me._

_I knew we were bound to be together,_

_Bound to be together…_

 

Erin felt her own chest tighten and release – not uncomfortably so – as Holtzmann spun her out, twirled her around twice, laughing and singing and dancing as she pulled her back in and they were face to face, chest to chest, and Holtzmann pushed her back into stepping in time with the beat.

 

They mock-waltzed around the lab, Holtzmann careful of them bumping into anything that may set off a “poof” and continued to sing to Erin with a wide grin.

 

“She took my arm; I don’t know how it happened! We took the floor and she said!” Erin laughed and spun Holtzmann out this time, pushing her out and then yanking her back in with just as much excitement as she felt the stress of her issues from earlier disappear with every laugh that boomed from deep within her chest.

 

Her feet felt light and not in a dance-y way either as she spun and twirled and allowed Holtzmann to dip her at the final bridge of the song –

 

_Deep in her eyes,_

(Holtzmann winked as she held Erin tightly, pulling her back up.

_I think I see the future_

(Erin felt her heart leap into her throat and her breath catch at the flecks of silver she could see dancing in the blonde’s eyes)

_I realize – this is my last chance!_

_She took my arm_

(Erin pushed Holtzmann out, smile falling slowly and pulled her back in)

_I don’t know how it happened_

(Holtzmann’s smile slowly faded as well when she noticed the seriousness on Erin’s face. Erin’s eyes locked on the younger woman’s. Then on her lips.)

_We took the floor and she said…_

 

“Shit-” Erin gasped as Holtzmann reached for Erin and Erin met her halfway into a passionate, heated exchange of lips and teeth and tongue. Erin’s mind went blank but her body was on _fire_ , she’d been kissed only a few short times in her life and none of them compared to the pure bliss that this one seemed to invoke within her.

 

Holtzmann gasped as Erin backed them both into a containment unit and took the chance to sweep her tongue into the blonde’s mouth for an even more passionate embrace.

 

Eventually, the need for real deep breathing oxygen became apparent and Erin could hardly take in air when she was busy breathing in all things Holtzmann and so she broke the kiss, breathing heavy – whether from the dancing or the kiss, she wasn’t positive (more research would need to be conducted) – and Holtzmann leaned her forehead against Erin’s, face tinted pink.

 

 _Holtzmann is blushing… I made_ Holtzmann _blush?_ Erin felt a small sense of pride in her as Holtzmann blinked and then a small, lopsided grin formed on the younger scientists’ face.

 

“Well, I guess that is one way to get me to shut up,” Holtz winked and Erin felt an undignified bark of laughter bubble up her chest and she let her head fall to the other woman’s shoulder as she let it out.

 

“I hate you,” Erin laughed, not meaning it at all.

 

“Well, hate me all you like, but only as long as I get to kiss you again?” Holtzmann queued, voice only growing a little serious as she ended her sentence as more of a request than a question. Erin smiled.

 

 _So much for no more flirting with my coworker’s rule_ , Erin pulled back, just enough to meet the engineer’s eyes. They were a little darker than before, but focused on everything Erin Gilbert and shone with hope and just a little bit of fear.

 

“I’d like that very much,” Erin returns and Holtzmann leans forward to happily take her prize.

 

“Well then, _m’lady_ ,” Holtzmann pecks her lips. “May I have this dance?”

 

Another song had popped on, an unfamiliar one this time but it still had a good rhythm and Erin smirked.

 

“Shut up and dance with me, Holtz.”

-FIN-

**Author's Note:**

> Reviews are nice. Leave me some here or come yell at me on Tumblr @ljthebard :3


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